Page 35 of House of Desire

I kiss her cheek before reluctantly pulling out of her embrace, the other girls waiting for their turn to say hi.

“I didn’t know I was going to have a performance review today, but I’ll take the critique under advisement for the second half of the show.” I can hardly believe we are already three weeks into the filming schedule after Jasmine being sent home at the elimination last night. It feels like it’s gone so much faster than when I was in House of Deceit.

Then again, on House of Deceit, a week was actually a week. Here, we are filming a “week” of the show every five days. The blistering pace makes it seem like more time is passing than it is.

Victoria all but elbows Anastasia out of the way as she goes to hug me. Her perfume almost gives me a cavity. It’s too sweet.

“Hello, sexy. You look so good, I want to climb you like a tree,” she whispers before taking my earlobe between her teeth.

I jerk back from her. Her expression is a little annoyed before settling into something, I believe, she intends to be sexy but makes it look like she has gas.

“You look good enough to eat. I got carried away,” Victoria says.

Anastasia shifts and it catches my eye over Victoria’s shoulder. Her expression has darkened, and she looks about ready to attack. Unsure if she’s feeding off my discomfort at the situation, or if jealousy is starting to get the better of her, I move on to the other two girls before anything can happen.

“Hi Mia. Aisha. Thank you both for coming,” I say as I hug both ladies. It feels off to hug them, a lack of connection becoming harder and harder to fight as I’m required to keep people around so the show is longer than a few weeks.

“You didn’t thank me,” Victoria says, batting her eyelashes. I can tell it’s meant to be funny, but the edge to her tone hints maybe it’s not.

“Maybe he was too shocked at the fact you were sucking on his ear like a poorly aimed vampire,” Anastasia says, sarcasm dripping.

My jaw wants to drop at the unexpected biting remark while the caveman inside me glows at the show of jealousy. But Victoria’s back tenses and I can feel the moment starting to devolve.

“Why don’t you shut up? I was having a moment with my boyfriend,” Victoria seethes.

“Your boyfriend? You mean the guy who probably wouldn’t recognize you if he passed you on the street for all the time you’ve spent with him?”

“Woah, now. My memory isn’t that bad,” I joke, trying to defuse the tension while sliding myself a little closer to both women, prepared to intervene, but neither of them hear me.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice how you threw yourself on him when you got out of the limo. Desperate much?” Victoria cocks an eyebrow at Anya, crossing her arms over her chest.

One of the camera people moves, and I see how it catches Anastasia’s attention. Her entire body language changes. The annoyance melts from her face in a split second.

“Whatever you say, Victoria,” she says, backing down and trying to blend back into the group.

Wanting to drag the attention away from her, I step in.

“We are probably behind schedule now. Maybe we should get back to it?”

Production steps in, ushering the ladies into the changing room. I’m taken to the sideline where I’m given a stopwatch, whistle, and a clipboard.

“What are they going to be doing? For the competition?”

“The pacer test,” Philip says.

“The pacer test? Like from fifth grade where they have to make it from one line to the other before the beep?”

“Yup!”

“What does that have to do with finding love?” I ask, trying to give him back all the things he just gave me.

I also want to ask why I needed to wear a suit for this, but I just let it go.

“They want to show the lengths the women will go to for your attention,” he says, like he’s talking to a particularly slow person.

“By making them run?” Rolling my eyes, I put the whistle over my head before shoving the other two items back into his hands. “I’m not holding these.”

“Fine. Get on your mark, please. In the middle of the field.” He hands me a card. “You’re going to be reading this.”

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